Trees
by L. Greene
Summary: "Go on a search for as many good climbing trees as possible, climb as high as you both can in all of them, compile photo evidence." AU! Part 1/20 of the "Date Night" series, based on a list of twenty unusual date ideas.


**This series was inspired by a Tumblr post. It was 20 Unusual Date Ideas, and of course, I read them as "20 Fanfiction Prompts." And since I started shipping Jo and Anna, I now have four Supernatural OTPs, meaning I can evenly divide 20 date ideas among four ships (with five prompts per ship). The ideas were numbered so I used a random number generator to assign prompts to ships. This is great and all, but Destiel ended up getting numbers 10, 11, and 12, and Balcifer got 13, 14, and 15, so it's going to seem like they're not random at all. Too bad, because they are.**

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_Go on a search for as many good climbing trees as possible, climb as high as you both can in all of them, compile photo evidence._

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"This has to be the stupidest thing we've ever done." Although her voice may have suggested disapproval, Anna was laughing as Jo leaped for the lowest tree branch. The shorter blonde just barely grabbed a hold of it and swung herself until she was able to sling a leg over the branch. Grinning smugly, she straddled it and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm sorry, you were saying?"

"My opinion still stands," Anna laughed.

"Sorry! I can't hear you! I'm too high up and you're just a little ant!" Jo joked, carefully standing up on the branch. She grabbed onto the trunk and started inching her way to the next branch. "Are you coming or what? There's no point if you don't come up here, too!"

Anna covered her eyes for a moment, chuckling softly. "Alright, hang on." She pulled her camera out of her back pocket and quickly snapped a picture. Jo's face was almost completely obscured by her wavy blond hair, but it was a good shot nonetheless. She'd been reaching out for the next branch, one foot braced behind her and the other wedged on a knot about a foot and a half away.

As soon as Jo was safely perched on the next branch, Anna reached for the first one. She grabbed onto it with both hands and walked up the trunk with her feet until she was able to situate herself atop the tree limb. She leaned back against the trunk and turned her head to meet Jo's brown-eyed gaze and smiled. "This counts, right? We both got in the tree and now we can get down, right?"

"Of course not! We can get higher! Besides, we agreed to this one, remember?" Jo looked up toward the top and then back down, a worried look crossing her face. "Unless you're scared of heights or something," she added. "Are you?"

"No," Anna said, smiling. She brushed her red hair back and gazed skyward. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

"Of course! It's fun! Taking pictures, climbing things—it's awesome!" Jo stood up on her branch and reached for the next one, which happened to be right above Anna's head. "Come on, nothing's going to happen, and I bet the view from up there is amazing."

Anna was a sucker for a good view. The photographer loved unusual and interesting landscapes, and a tree as a vantage point was sure to offer a wide scene. Suddenly excited, she scrambled up after Jo, following her from branch to branch. They finally stopped when the boughs became too narrow and flimsy to support their weight, and Anna took a picture of the ground to illustrate how high they were.

"This is amazing!" Jo whooped, shimmying toward the end of the branch that she'd claimed. She pushed aside some foliage and let out a whistle. "Anna, come look! This is great!"

The bough on which Anna had stopped was close to Jo's, but not facing the exact same direction. Still, she nudged past a few leave and nearly gasped.

The park that they were climbing in was adjacent to the ocean, and she figured she could see for at least a mile out. The sight of that water in the distant filled her with a low thrum of excitement and she held up her camera to take another picture. It was absolutely beautiful. She grinned up at Jo. "You were right. This is incredible."

"See? I told you!" Jo leaned toward her, pitching forward while keeping a tight grip on the branch. She pressed a quick kiss to Anna's lips before leaning back, still grinning.

Anna grinned back and climbed up to the same branch as Jo. She stayed near the base, where it was strongest, because she wasn't entirely convinced the tree limb could hold both of them for very long. Jo scooted toward her with a more mischievous bent to her smile. "What do you think?" she asked, resting one hand on Anna's denim-clad thigh and reaching up with the other to wind a lock of bright red hair around her finger.

Anna smiled back and closed the distance between them again. It was slow and sweet and when Anna gently ran her fingers through Jo's hair, the blonde seemed to melt into her touch. For a few moments, the world seemed to melt away and it was just the two of them. No one else mattered. It was the two of them, the tree, and twenty feet of nearly-empty space between them and the ground. And then, before Jo realized what was happening, Anna quickly snapped a picture of them kissing and pulled back, giggling. "I think we have more trees to find," she joked.

For the rest of the afternoon, they tore around the park, taking pictures of each other and posing in front of the trees they attempted to climb. The highest they got was nearly forty feet (they were guessing) and the views were always spectacular. The best tree was one whose branches seemed to web out, creating a little nest with the branches and the leaves obscuring them from everyone below them. They didn't come down for nearly a half an hour, and if they had kissed-on marks lining their necks, neither of them cared. They could easily flip up their collars, but something like that required effort and neither of them had the capacity to be concerned.

The end of the day found them sitting on the grass, staring at the sunset, their arms around each others' waists. Jo rested her head on Anna's shoulder and Anna turned her head to kiss the top of Jo's. "Had a good day?" Anna asked lazily, absently playing with a few strands of the blonde's hair.

Jo nodded. "Mmhmm. And I'm looking forward to seeing all those pictures you took. How many were there? Like fifty?"

"I think it was closer to a hundred," Anna laughed. She hugged Jo closer to her and tilted her head up with two fingers. For a few moments, her blue eyes locked with Jo's brown eyes, and nothing but love and tenderness passed between them. Then Anna kissed her again, both of them smiling and feeling their hearts rising in their chests. "I love you," she murmured.

Jo's smile widened and her eyes seemed to sparkle. "I love you, too."


End file.
